Readers recall the breathtaking sight and community spirit of the rare celestial treat – and the handmade contraptions they saw it through

On Wednesday evening, millions of people in Europe watched a rare solar eclipse. We asked some of them to share their photographs and experiences of this celestial treat.

Here are some of their responses.

It is not enough now for war to kill, it must eradicate a people’s cherished and precious heritage too

Wars may not take summer holidays, but they do sometimes see exhaustion. As drones race back and forth across Ukraine and the strait of Hormuz, a grim stalemate seems to have invaded the earth beneath. Aerial bombardment knows limited resistance and even less victory or defeat. Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran and their allies seem able to defy diplomacy and drop bombs on each other for ever.

At which point the outside world can merely count some of the costs. Vladimir Putin’s known desire to eliminate Ukraine’s historical identity has led to its cultural devastation. Two weeks ago Unesco reported the destruction or dereliction of 545 of its historic buildings, including 156 religious sites and 43 museums. The attempted eradication of what Putin himself claims to be an intrinsic part of Russia’s own history is sickening.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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The great Argentinian’s Highlands holiday, a mischievous doc about Jack the Ripper, the hypnotic latest from Nicolas Winding Refn and a kinky noir romp are among the best of this year’s lineup

• Edinburgh international film festival showcases a Scottish industry in rude health

George MacKay gives a viscerally intense performance in a new film from For Those in Peril’s Paul Wright. He plays a troubled restaurant worker called Dylan, who snaps during his asinine corporate “performance assessment” and heads off on an anguished and violent journey of despair into his own past.

Ethics experts and Democrats express alarm as Trump uses office to grow his personal fortune to ‘unprecedented’ level

Donald Trump’s use of his second presidency to grow his personal fortune has alarmed legal and ethics experts and congressional Democrats as he has reaped an “unprecedented” $2.2bn in 2025 revenues by amassing big cryptocurrency holdings, benefiting from wealthy foreign interests, expanding his Truth Social business and more, while federal oversight of his actions has waned.

Trump last year raked in at least $1.4bn from his crypto ventures according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June. Simultaneously, about one million investors in a Trump crypto scheme suffered almost $3.8bn in losses as their volatile crypto holdings tanked in value.

How can our understanding of mortality shape the way we live? Palliative care doctors and death doulas share the lessons they have learned

We will all face death one day, but our attitude towards this is individual. How can our understanding of mortality shape our approach to life? Here, palliative care doctors and death doulas share what they know about the end – and how it informs the way they live.

This summer’s extreme weather and wars in Iran and Ukraine have made our need for food stockpiles more pressing than ever

When a business makes long-term plans, they call it prudence. When a government makes long-term plans, they call it communism. Any sustained state intervention attracts the prefix “Soviet-style”, and triggers vicious attacks across the billionaire media. So governments have developed a bias against long-term thinking. This may explain why we no longer maintain strategic food reserves.

In Britain, where soils have parched, market analysts warn that we’re facing the most severe food security crisis in decades. In normal years, crop failures at home don’t threaten our security, thanks to global trade. This is one of the reasons why hunger and famines are rarer and less deadly than they used to be. But this is not a normal year, because the problem is now global.

Kew Gardens in London hits 38.1C and 40C-plus recorded in parts of Europe with continent trapped under heat dome

• Europe heatwave – latest updates

The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under a major heat dome.

As temperatures on the continent surpassed 40C at the peak of the summer’s fifth heatwave, the thermometer at Kew Gardens in west London on Thursday surpassed the previous high of 38C on 28 June, the Met Office said.

Higher education figures call on Labour to reverse tax on fees and warn institutions at risk of ‘going under’

University leaders are warning of financial turmoil in British higher education after new figures suggested a collapse in international student numbers would deprive the sector of vital income and undermine its future.

The sector’s leaders called on the government to rethink the levy on international student fees imposed under Keir Starmer, as a former universities minister warned there was a risk of a university “going under” because of the financial crisis.

Leader of Reform UK on course to defeat Count Binface and an assortment of fringe candidates as polls close in Essex

Voting has closed in one of the UK’s more unusual and least tense byelections, with Nigel Farage set for a decisive if arguably empty victory against dozens of independent, fringe, extreme or otherwise oddball opponents.

The Reform UK leader sought re-election to his Clacton seat in early July in an attempt to regain the political initiative following weeks of scrutiny over gifts he received and other aspects of his financial affairs.

Grassfire covering about 16 hectares near golf course in Stourbridge was one of several large blazes in region

Four people have been taken to hospital and several homes damaged as fires tore through residential neighbourhoods in the West Midlands.

A 16-hectare (40-acre) grassfire near a golf course in Stourbridge was one of several significant fires in the region on Thursday – the UK’s hottest day of the year.